Original equipment manufacturers of motor vehicles perform various tests on prototype and production vehicles in order to ascertain their performance characteristics. Some tests involve subjecting the motor vehicle to certain environmental conditions. One of these environmental conditions is dust.
It has been routine practice for dust testing of a motor vehicle to be performed by a dynamic road test in which the subject motor vehicle is driven in the open air over a predetermined road course whereat dust is present, as for example at a dirt road course (public or private) in the desert. Various aspects of the motor vehicle are impacted by dust, as for example the quality of the door sealing.
In the 1970's Fisher Body, a division of General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., experimented with the possible use of a dust testing chamber for motor vehicle dust testing at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Mich. However, the tests were inconclusive and the dust could not be recirculated. Accordingly, the dynamic road dust test was considered indispensable for the analysis of motor vehicle sealing and the dust chamber experimentation was abandoned.
Applicants have heard by second-hand information that the U.S. military may have a dust testing booth in Florida, but if it exists, the workings thereof are unknown to Applicants. Applicants are also aware that Boeing Corporation of Seattle, Wash., uses a type of dust booth that involves placing oil on an aircraft wing; the dust, in conjunction with the oil, serves to seal any cracks that my be present on the wing surface.
In the interim since the Fisher Body experimentation, improved air filtration systems have become available. Additionally, dry powder spray systems for paint application have been developed. These developments, combined with the time and money consumed by dynamic road tests, have given new impetus to the need to develop a successful dust testing facility for motor vehicle evaluations.